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Olive Elementary

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About Us

Welcome!

Welcome to Olive Elementary! We are proud neighborhood school where diversity is celebrated and every child is supported. We work closely together to build an environment that is safe, welcoming, and inclusive for every student. At Olive, we believe that when children are given the right supports, structures, and encouragement, they can access meaningful learning and grow at their own pace. We focus on helping each student make real progress socially, emotionally, and academically. We are the Olive SHARKS and we strive to be Safe, Helpful, Always respectful, Responsible, and Kind!

Principal Lori Hiura

Principal at Olive

School Profile

Exterior view of Olive Elementary School on a sunny day.

Olive Elementary School offers Novato youth a supportive educational environment to learn and grow from Transitional Kindergarten through 5th grade.  Built in 1952, Olive Elementary was Novato’s first grammar school and is today one of eight public elementary schools within the Novato Unified School District.  

Olive Elementary offers a home-away-from-home for a diverse body of roughly 360 students from surrounding neighborhoods plus two Marin County Special Day classes that serve students with special needs from around the county.  

We are committed to providing a challenging, standards-based instructional program that focuses on developing the knowledge and skills in students required for them to become responsible and resilient learners in a rapidly changing world.  The Olive community is conscientious, collaborative, respectful, and takes pride in its diversity. 

 

Our Mission

 

 

 

Our mission is to inspire all students to develop an enthusiasm for learning and self-reliance as they become contributing members of the world.

Two smiling boys pose for a photo on a sunny schoolyard.

Our Vision

A student holds a cutout of a person giving a thumbs-up in a classroom.

Olive Elementary School is known for encouraging a climate of collaboration through Professional Learning Community Strategies. We also believe in educating the “whole child.” While all students will meet or exceed the standards for learning by demonstrating their full potential, we want our students to develop independence, perseverance, and the skills to work positively and respectfully with others in order to become life-long learners.

Student Support

It is our goal to assist students in their social and personal development as well as academics. The school gives special attention to students who experience achievement problems, difficulty coping with personal and family problems, trouble with decision making, or handling peer pressure.  The support service personnel available at Olive Elementary are listed below.

A young student works on a worksheet with the help of a teacher in a classroom.

 

  • Olive Elementary provides special education services to students who are assessed and found to be eligible for special education. Programs and services designed to meet the student’s needs are identified in the Individualized Education Plan (IEP). The Resource Specialist Program serves students with exceptional needs who are able to function in the regular classroom for the majority of the day. They receive individual, small group, or classroom instruction designed to meet their identified needs.  Designated Instructional Services are provided to students who are eligible for Occupational Therapy, Speech Therapy, or other services.

  • Olive Elementary School offers our English Language Learner (ELL) students the assistance through the following programs and services:  Intervention teacher, Language Central, IDEA picture cards, Reading Street English Language Support, Oxford Picture Dictionary, Phonics for Reading, and Step Up to Writing. Every teacher at Olive is trained in using GLAD strategies (Guided Language Acquisition Design) to help all students develop a strong base in academic vocabulary.

  • As a district, our goal is to provide support to teachers and schools so that every student is challenged and makes significant progress during each school year. GATE is a district-designed and funded program for highly capable students. NUSD does not receive supplemental funding for our GATE program.

    Novato has designed the GATE program with 5 principles in mind:

    • All educators are responsible for the education of students with gifts and talents.
    • Services should be provided throughout the day in all environments based on their abilities, needs and interests.
    • Giftedness is dynamic and constantly changing.
    • Giftedness is found among students from a variety of backgrounds.
    • Student education is focused on student outcomes rather than practices.

  • Olive Elementary School provides before-school intervention classes in English/Language Arts for kindergarten through 5th-grade students and Mathematics for 1st through 5th-grade students performing below grade-level standards or who are at risk of retention. These classes are targeted for the student’s specific needs and run for 6-8 weeks based upon the skill that needs to be targeted.  Counseling is available three days a week, which works in both small group and individual services for students.

Enrichment Activities

With the support of our PTA, we offer a variety of school day enrichment classes. Our students attend weekly music and PE classes, and bi-monthly gardening and STEAM classes. Students also attend cooking classes throughout the year with Chef Mark from Tabula Cooking. We also offer a variety of assemblies throughout the year that celebrate our diverse cultures and support our SHARK values. 

A community garden with raised beds overlooks a baseball field on a sunny day.

Parent Engagement

A group of women laugh and chat together at a table outdoors.

Parent involvement is crucial to a child’s daily success in school.  The efforts of the Olive School PTA, Site Council, and ELAC directly support programs and materials to enhance the daily instructional program.  The strong commitment of our parents/guardians and families is reflected in the high level of classroom volunteers and the concrete results of the PTA’s fundraising efforts.  The PTA provides assemblies and field trips for extended learning, organizes after-school enrichment classes for all students, and supports collaborative community events such as the Halloween celebration and the Tour of Novato.  The staff is committed to continued collaboration with our school Leadership Team, PTA, ELAC, and the broader community to strengthen the support we can offer students to achieve their educational potential.

Facilities

The Olive Elementary campus is situated on thirteen acres and features 21 classrooms, a multipurpose room/cafeteria, library, staff lounge, computer lab, shade structure, and three playgrounds.  Originally constructed in 1952, a recent remodeling modernized our multi-use room, computer lab, and classrooms.  

The kindergarten classes have their own fenced playground.  There’s a split-terraced upper playground for 1st and 2nd grades, and a split-terraced lower playground and playing field for 3rd, 4th, and 5th grades.  In addition, the City of Novato maintains an adjacent fenced playing field.

The school’s library, staffed by a full-time Library Clerk, provides an extensive variety of reference and special interest materials, and hundreds of educational and recreational books. Students visit the library regularly during class time and are encouraged to visit before and after school. Nine computer workstations within the library are connected to the Internet so students can access resources and information online.

An outdoor seating area with wooden benches and picnic tables under trees.

Technology Resources

Students in a classroom listen to a presentation, with a screen showing a dog.

Chromebooks are accessible to all 2nd - 5th grade students in the classroom. Class sets of IPads are available for students to use in TK – 1st grades. Computer skills and concepts are integrated throughout standard curriculum which helps to prepare students for technological growth and other opportunities. Students have been trained in the following programs:  Type to Learn, STAR Reading, Accelerated Reader, IXL, Starfall, Websites of adopted curriculum series, and the Google Suite. 

 

 

 

There’s a place for you, too.
Join us and thrive here.
 

A group of diverse teens gather under a tree on a sunny day.